


in one way or another, we remember

by thir13enth



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: A little bit of comfort, A little bit of hurt, Gen, and a whole lot of love, and helps her go through a little bit of grieving, basically hilda helps leonie fix up her charm, for Hilda Week!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:33:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22531036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thir13enth/pseuds/thir13enth
Summary: Leonie has an emergency consult for Hilda.
Kudos: 12





	in one way or another, we remember

**Author's Note:**

> **prompt:** fashion | freedom for [Hilda Week](https://twitter.com/HildaWeek)

Hilda had always expected Leonie to eventually come running back to her — so needless to say, she was not surprised at all when Leonie did just that, interrupting her while she was in the middle of painting her right middle finger.

“Hilda!” Leonie shrieked, extending her open hands to Hilda. Hilda took a look: a rotted strand of yellowed twine and two blackened pieces of wood that might have originally had some kind of form but now looked like shapeless pieces of junk.

Hilda had never seen Leonie so distressed before. “Let me guess, you want me to fix this charm of yours, don’t you?” she asked, looking back up at her and meeting her eyes. “This is the one that Jeralt gifted you, right?”

Leonie vigorously nodded her head. “Y-Yeah. I… I was being _so_ stupid, and I was training too hard, and I could have been more careful so that this wouldn’t have happened! And now it’s broken, and I don’t know what to do! You can help me, right?”

With her half-dried fingernail extended, Hilda screwed the top of the polish bottle back on. She blew on the paint, then waved it in the air to quicken the drying process. She put out her hands, and Leonie carefully pours the pieces into Hilda’s hands. Hilda almost recoiled at how disintegrated the charm pieces felt in her palms. Her mouth twisted and she tsked.

“See, this is what happens when you work too hard, Leonie,” Hilda chided. “You should relax a little, you know. It’s good for you!”

“I’m so _so_ stupid!” Leonie replied. “I mean Raphael didn’t _mean_ to break it — we were just trading punches! If I just ducked in time or been more agile, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place!”

“Well, I’d argue that this charm was bound to grow old at some point. You know, I _told_ you before that if you wanted to keep it preserved, you should have put it in some resin and got it a proper chain!”

“I know,” Leonie said, dejected. “And I was also really stupid for not taking your advice. I just thought it was best to keep it as original as possible so that it was closest to the way Jeralt gave it to me. A-And I thought that was how to best keep his memory alive, but—” Leonie paused, stuttering. “—but now this is broken and what it can’t be repaired to the way it was before, and I’ll lose the only thing I ever had from him! And now he’s dead!”

Hilda, admittedly, had not been prepared for Leonie’s outburst of anguish — especially from Leonie, who she had only ever seen fierce and high-spirited, never quite on the brink of tears. She stepped forward, bringing Leonie in for an embrace. “It’s okay, Leonie. There are ways to fix this,” she promised.

Leonie’s eyes brightened. She blinked, the glass glaze over her eyes fading. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Hilda assured her, offering her a smile.

Leonie returned it, and they go and do just that. They replace the twine with a few thin loops of metal and cleaned the dirt and oils off the wood pieces before applying varnish. They reconstructed the charm as best as they could and set them into resin.

It took an entire day, but Leonie was a quick learner. Hilda simply told her the instructions, and Leonie would execute just so. Hilda, in the meantime, carved herself enough spare time to finish painting the last few nails on her right hand.

“And that’s it,” Hilda said, peering at the glossy resin over the wood pieces. She turned, smiling at Leonie. “All you’ll have to do is wait for a day or two so that the resin can set — I’m sure you can last another few days without your lucky charm, right?”

Leonie gave her a soft laugh. “Yeah…” she agreed, looking wistfully at the wood. “I never once took it off, you know?”

“Honestly, I’m impressed it’s lasted that long then,” Hilda replied.

“I guess.” Leonie looked back at Hilda. “You know, I don’t feel any different without it,” she said. “I mean, I think I knew the charm didn’t mean as much as it did when he first gave it to me, but I think by the time I realized that I had already worn it for so long that I just decided to keep wearing it.” She laughed again, returning her eyes to Hilda. “Kinda feels like my past self put so much meaning to it that I had no choice but to keep doing that. I guess I’m silly for getting that attached to it, huh?”

“No, I think that’s fine.” Hilda shrugged. “Mementos can mean a lot to us. You don’t have to be so minimalistic about it.”

Leonie nodded, taking Hilda’s words to heart. “Yeah. I don’t have anything else from him.”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Hilda disagreed. “You don’t just have that. You have all those memories with him, and you learned all these lessons from him. In fact, I think you’re a living memento of Jeralt, and I think that probably means more than a charm, don’t you think?”

Leonie smiled, her eyes brightening. “You’re right,” she replied.

She blinked, and this time, the glass glaze over her eyes turned into a small tear she wiped away.

**Author's Note:**

> idk sometimes you just flip back into past tense. right now is one of those times. 
> 
> twitter @ napsbeforesleep  
> discord @ ahumanintraining#2153


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